


Change Of Fate

by Islair



Series: Breeders AU [3]
Category: The Emperor's Edge Series - Lindsay Buroker
Genre: CarrierVerse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24037699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Islair/pseuds/Islair
Series: Breeders AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548352
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a long and thirsty hike from the border mountains. The Desert Kingdoms were more sparse and spiny scrubland than shifting sands, but wells and springs were few and far between. Inevitably, any reliable source of water grew into a small town, somewhere for the nomadic lizard herders to meet and trade.

And since his water canteen was now empty, here Sicarius was too. Even assassins needed to drink to survive.  


The Desert Kingdoms had fared badly during the plague. The sudden depopulation followed by the Change had destabilised the inter-tribal truces that had held for the past hundred years. Now, a leader had emerged who threatened to unite the many kingdoms into a new confederation that would upset the balance of power along the Empire’s southernmost borders. Naturally, this was not in the Empire's interest to allow.

Sicarius wandered into the town in search of the well. He was wearing a pale brown desert robe instead of his habitual black. The well and marketplace were inevitably next to each other in the centre of town. Awnings hung between buildings providing shade from the glare of the sun for the traders.

He paid the toll to the wellkeeper, and joined the queue on the steps that spiralled down the side of the well shaft. The water was several feet below, at its summer low level. The queue moved briskly, and it was only a few minutes before he was at the water filling his canteen to the brim, and also quenching his thirst with a couple of handfuls scooped straight into his mouth.

He climbed back up the stair and passed out through the well-gate into the marketplace crowd, where he wandered back and forth for a while, browsing the stalls and listening in to conversations. Hearing no new news or information that might affect his mission plan, he headed out of town again. Back to the dusty road towards his target.


	2. Chapter 2

As the shadows lengthened through the late afternoon, Sicarius left the dusty road and wandered deep into a denser area of scrubland. Here he could rest unobserved for a few hours before using the cover of darkness to complete the assassination.

As he settled himself amongst the spiny twigs, he felt a twinge of discomfort in his guts. He cursed his luck. The water at the town well had looked and tasted clean, but that was not a guarantee that it had not been contaminated with some infectious agent.

He dug out a small vial of an anti-diarrhoeal tincture from his rucksack and swallowed down a dose as a preventative measure. And, much though he hated the taste, he measured a small dose of disinfecting solution into his canteen. Finding another well and replacing his entire supply of water was not a practical option right now.

He settled down to rest then.

* * *

A few hours later, Sicarius awoke.

The discomfort in his abdomen had deepened into a throbbing pain, but he no longer felt as if a bout of diarrhoea and vomiting was on its way. The pain was bearable, and with the infection under control, it ought to resolve without disrupting his mission.

The night was dark, with no moonlight. Perfect for avoiding being seen. He made his final preparations and then set off into the night to make his kill.


	3. Chapter 3

Sicarius completed the assassination with the discipline and professionalism to which he had been trained. He slipped in and out of the enemy fortress without any of the guards noticing him. The dispatch itself was quick and clean. The victim never knew what hit him and did not have time to suffer.

Soon he was absconding into the night, with the victim's severed head packed in preserving salt in an oilcloth bag tied to his pack. The Emperor did so enjoy his gruesome souvenirs, no matter that it made Sicarius' job just that little bit harder by delaying him at the kill. 

The pain in his abdomen was still there. If anything it felt like it was spreading downwards towards his groin. Don’t worry about it now he told himself. He put it out of his mind and concentrated on jogging through the night. No telling when the alarm would finally be raised and pursuers would start looking for his trail. The sooner he was back across the border, the better.

* * *

A few hours later as the sky began to show the first signs of the coming dawn, he was jogging through the thicker forest of spiny brush and small trees that covered the lowest foothills of the mountain range that formed the border with the Empire.

The pain in his groin had slowly been increasing, and had now become a fiery agony, drowning out the feeling from his legs. He was starting to stumble over any unevenness in the ground. He willed himself to keep going, knowing that if he stopped now he would not get up again.

When the ground suddenly opened up beneath his feet he did not have the strength to throw himself clear and fell into the opening crevasse. 


	4. Chapter 4

He awoke some time later. How long had he been out? Vague memories of lying here in pain and delirium suggested that it had maybe been a day or two at least. His mouth was dry and coated - he scrabbled in the dark for his rucksack and took a long drink from his canteen to quench his thirst.

The pain in his abdomen and groin was fading now at least, and the aches in his legs and elsewhere appeared to just be bruises from the fall. No broken bones. And he was still uncaptured.

The ground beneath him was covered with fine damp sand over solid rock. Above, he could make out a hole in the darkness through which stars were visible. Listening intently, he got the impression that he was in a narrow tunnel of some kind. Maybe an aqueduct of the type the desert people used to pipe water underground from the mountain aquifers. If so, this one must no longer be in use to be so dry. Abandoned along with the settlement it had fed when the spring at its source had dried up.

His pants were stiff with what felt like dried blood, so he carefully peeled them off and discarded them. He used a handful of the damp sand to scrub away the worst of it from his skin before switching to a dampened cloth - and then his probing fingers confirmed the cause of his pains.

Sicarius had been raised from birth to become the Emperor’s assassin - his parents chosen by Lord Hollowcrest for their suitable traits, his whole life dedicated to that inescapable fate. It had never even occurred to him that he could be one of those who would change. And yet now he found that his fate had changed.

He sat in shock for only a few moments before his training reasserted itself. He was after all still behind enemy lines, and potentially still being actively hunted by vengeful enemies. Now was not the time to worry about what this change meant. First he needed to survive. He needed to find a way out of this tunnel, and then to get back across the border to the Empire.

He pulled on clean clothes from his rucksack, and chewed on a dried ration bar whilst he considered his options. Working on the assumption that this was an abandoned aqueduct, his best option was to follow the subtle downhill slope of the tunnel. Either there would be some form of inspection shaft on the way, or he would come out at the abandoned well that this channel had once fed.

* * *

Walking along the tunnel proved somewhat uncomfortable. Sicarius was below average height for a Turgonian, but that still put him of a height with the tallest of the desert people. Whoever had dug this tunnel had however been much shorter, requiring him to walk with a stoop to avoid hitting his head on the uneven ceiling.

After about two miles, the tunnel opened up into what must once have been a stepped well, but was now choked with spiny shrubs, roots thirstily digging through the silt for the last traces of water. Sicarius made his way slowly to the surface, avoiding breaking or cutting the branches so as to leave as little trace as possible.

The well steps led up into a long-abandoned town. What had once been buildings were reduced to little more than overgrown piles of tumbled stones. Sicarius gazed up at the stars above, identifying the constellations and following them to the north star. From its elevation and the angle of the nearby constellations to the vertical, he estimated he had another three hours til dawn. He turned towards the border mountains and resumed jogging.


	5. Chapter 5

The express train trundled its way through the Turgonian countryside. The Imperial Railways tied the distant satraps to the capital, shrinking journeys that had once taken weeks to mere days.

The passenger compartment was meant to seat at least eight, but Sicarius had claimed it for himself so that he could stretch out across the upholstered benches and rest. So far he had had to deploy no stronger discouragement than a cold stare to keep other passengers away. Nobody wanted to talk to assassins.

The long journey back to the capital was giving him time to rest and recuperate. And time to brood on his change of fate.

He well knew the law - all who change must register with the Ministry of Population and devote their lives to breeding. From overheard conversations in the corridors of the Imperial Barracks, he knew that the number of breeders in the Empire was still worryingly low.

Beyond that however, he knew next to nothing of what life as a breeder would be like.

One thing that had been drilled into him during his training was that walking blindly into an unknown situation was suicide. It would be best for him to discover more about life as a breeder before registering. Hiding for a time should not be hard, and once he knew more he could do his duty and register for breeding.

* * *

On his return to the Imperial Barracks, Sicarius made his usual presentation of the severed head to the Emperor before making his full report on the mission to Commander Hollowcrest. He blamed the extra days lost in the aqueduct on the explosive diarrhoea he had initially feared he had contracted.


End file.
